Peter Beaumont wants you to believe that Jews oppress Christians in Jerusalem

The most recentreportby the US State Department on Religious Freedom in Israel and the Palestinian territories noted that though “Israel’s security fence restricted the ability of some Palestinian Muslims and Christians to reach some places of worship”, overall “the Israeli government respected the right to freedom of religion within the Occupied Territories“.

Regarding Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, however, the State Department reached a far different conclusion, documenting the institutional discrimination against Christians, their minority Shiite population and all Muslims who didn’t abide by the strictest interpretation of Islam.

Here are some highlights from the report:

“The de facto Hamas authorities in Gaza continued to restrict religious freedom in both law and practice, and the negative trend for respect of this right was reflected in such abuses as arresting or detaining Muslims in Gaza who did not abide by Hamas’ strict interpretation of Islam and broadcasting a program calling for Jews to be killed.”

Since the 2007 Hamas coup in the Gaza Strip, Hamas, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, has exercised de facto authority over the territory and has enforced conservative Islamic law, harassed non-Muslims, and imposed religious restrictions on women.

Hamas maintained control of Gaza throughout the year, used it as a base for attacks against Israel, and sometimes exploited its security apparatus to arrest or detain Muslims in Gaza who did not abide by Hamas’ strict interpretation of Islam.

In January Hamas authorities reportedly raided a Shia religious gathering during the holiday of Arbaeen in the Gazan neighborhood of Sheikh Zayyad. Reports differed on whether excessive force was used, although some claim at least 14 persons were arrested and some hospitalized. Hamas Ministry of Interior public statements claimed that the raid was a response to an illegal group with “corrupt views” that sought to commit unspecified crimes. It further stated that Gaza was a “Sunni country where Shiism does not exist.“

Hamas enforced a conservative interpretation of Islam on Gaza’s Muslim population. For example, Hamas operated a women’s prison during the year to house women convicted of “ethical crimes” such as “illegitimate pregnancy.”

local [Gaza] religious leaders received warnings ahead of Christian holidays against any public display of Christianity. Christians raised concerns that Hamas failed to defend their rights as a religious minority. Local officials sometimes advised converts to leave their communities to prevent harassment against them.

More broadly, reports abound demonstrating that Christians face systemic persecution throughout the Arab and Muslim Middle East, with studiespredictingthat “Christianity will“effectively disappear from the region as a cultural and political force within our lifetime”. As The Telegraph commented on a recent study by the think-tank Civitas, “the most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam”. The report estimates some 2 million Christians have reportedlyfled the region in the past 20 years alone.

Israel, on the other hand, is the one country in the region where the Christians are free, the population thriving, and their numbers growing.

Yet, despite the fact that Israel is the only safe haven for Christians in the Middle East, the Guardian’s new Jerusalem correspondent Peter Beaumont filed a report employing quintessential Guardian trickery on the issue: imputing Israeli intolerance from a few highly questionable accounts that are completely devoid of context, while ignoring the far more egregious crimes against Christians by Palestinian Muslims.

Orthodox worshippers complained of a heavy-handed Israeli police presence at the Holy Fire ceremony on Easter Saturday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with many worshippers denied access.

Of course, such “heavy-handed” security and crowd control measures, to keep worshipers from surging into the church, may be one of the reasons why there were no reports of violence despite the incredibly large number of visitors. Further, testifying to the overall success of the day’s events, Christian officials reportedly thanked Israeli police for their professional handling of the event.

Beaumont’s narrative appears to have taken an even more dishonest turn in the following passages:

On Sunday morning it emerged that Israeli police had prevented the UN’s peace envoy to the Middle East, Robert Serry, other diplomats and a crowd of Palestinians from attending the Holy Fire ceremony on Saturday.

Serry said in a statement Israeli security officers had stopped a group of Palestinian worshippers and diplomats in a procession near the church, “claiming they had orders to that effect”.

However, it appears that Serry was allowed to pass and did attend the ceremony.

A precarious standoff ensued ending in an angry crowd pushing their way through,” Serry said. Serry spokeswoman Elpida Rouka said that the envoy and his party were trapped for about 30 minutes but that eventually the police retreated and the group, along with “an anxious crowd of worshipers,” was able to enter.

Moreover, a more honest assessment of the day’s events would invariably conclude that Israel pulled off a remarkable feat on Saturday, allowing tens of thousands of Christians to visit holy sites in Jerusalem for Easter – a day which wasn’t marred by even the smallest incident of violence.

But, of course, such an honest account of Israel’s progressive advantages in the region would betray the Guardian narrative. And, as we’re slowing learning about the paper’s new regional correspondent, when there’s a competition between allegiance to accuracy and telling Guardian readers what they want to hear, the former will lose almost every time.

“Uniquely among would-be pilgrims, Palestinian Christians from the West Bank and Gaza are required to seek permission to travel to the Old City, a lottery in which it is never clear how many permits a family will receive, if any. Last week Christian leaders complained that – as in recent years – they had faced either obstruction from the Israeli authorities or a lack of travel permits preventing many from celebrating Easter in Jerusalem’s Old City.

“It is not only local Christian leaders who have been critical. A US state department report three years ago also highlighted the problems of Palestinian Christians in reaching key religious sites, a complaint reportedly echoed by a recent internal EU document.”

“Uniquely among would-be pilgrims, Palestinian Christians from the West Bank and Gaza are required to seek permission to travel to the Old City…
Maybe because only the Palestinian “would-be-pilgrims” are known about their tendency to express their religious devotion to kill Jews (and any others) using terrorism? Just asking… Last week Christian leaders complained that – as in recent years – they had faced either obstruction from the Israeli authorities or a lack of travel permits preventing many from celebrating Easter in Jerusalem’s Old City….
Maybe they should ask their compatriots to behave as real Christians and not would-be-martyrs?A US state department report three years ago also highlighted the problems of Palestinian Christians in reaching key religious sites, a complaint reportedly echoed by a recent internal EU document….
Everybody who only once passed US immigration can understand their worries…
The difference that they allowed in some poor refugees like the Boston Marathon bombers. And the internal EU document? Obviously they are worried because they don’t have any other Christian brethren to worry about in any other ME countries…

Should read 972’s latest piece on two Palestinian Christian villages razed by the IDF in the 40s. The Christian villagers are still waiting to return, despite favorable rulings by the Supreme Court in… 1951:

Reminds me the anti-semitic professor who complains that the Jewish students try to cheat during the exams and when the others tell him that every student tries to cheat then he answers: Yes but we are talking about the Jews now…

How can violations committed in Syria justify the treatment of Christian Israelis in Israel, when they complain of being forbidden to go back to two Christian villages and of never being compensated for the destruction of their homes?

” Peter Beaumont wants you to believe that Jews oppress Christians in Jerusalem
”
Well actually it’s not Beaumont who wants you to believe this but a range of Christian leaders whom he quotes, as anyone who actually reads the article can see. Moreover the notoriously anti-semitic US Dept of State seems to think there’s something in the oppression theory too. In their “2011 Report on International Religious Freedom: Israel and the occupied territories – the occupied territories” the department notes:

“Israel’s Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty provides for the protection of religious freedom, although the government’s closure and curfew policies and its separation barrier restricted the ability of Palestinian Muslims and Christians to reach some places of worship and to practice their religious rites at certain locations, particularly in Jerusalem. Israel’s separation barrier also limited access to holy sites and seriously hindered the work of religious organizations and their delivery of humanitarian relief and social services to Palestinians, especially in and around East Jerusalem. Israeli security authorities at times restricted Muslim and Christian worship within Jerusalem.”

So you’re saying any restriction of movement equates oppression, even if that restriction is based on the “spontaneous” riots of Muslim men, for example, who can’t stand the Jews who hang out at the Temple Mount? So what you’re saying is that any attempt to stop rock throwers, or missile launchers, or pizzeria bombers is a form of oppression because you mis-read State Department reports?

Not the sharpest tool in the shed. Not the brightest bulb in the kitchen. That’s Sencar in a nutshell, with an emphasis on Nut.

Israel’s separation barrier also limited access to holy sites and seriously hindered the work of religious organizations and their delivery of humanitarian relief and social services to Palestinians, especially in and around East Jerusalem

Typical for the race, class and gender idiocy reigning in the Obama administration, when deliveries are considered as part of religious freedom, while Jews are barred from the temple.
Some sort of political hypocrisy and corrupt morals.

And Muhamad have never been to al aqsa. why not just say that in your opionin Jews have no histrical ties to israel. As far as you are concernd Jews don;t really know what they are saying when they consider the western wall which was the only thing that remained of the temple as their most holy place.

As everyone familiar with the problem knows, the priests of the Holy Sepulchre have a tradition of fistfights brawling for their branch’s dominance in the church – the Israeli Police only makes a public service for Christianity in general and Beaumont, Serry and sencar in particular – they prevent the embarrassing demonstrations of their barbarism.

‘Pete’
Here we go again, another day, another name but the same old bullshit and attempt to twist what someone has written in a pathetic attempt to make a feeble point.

peterthehungarian was clearly writing about the antics at the Holy Sepulchre when he refers to “..embarrassing demonstrations of their barbarism.”
And he is right to label it as such, for the definition of barbarism is “the absence of culture and civilized standards; ignorance and rudeness.”

I cannot answer for Christians in the U.S., but I am a Christian in the U.K., and I read nothing offensive to Christians in his post.
What is offensive is the behaviour of those who indulged in fights at the Holy Sepulchre for sectarian advantage, and of course your pathetic attempt to twist and misuse the post as an insult to Christians.

I kinda doubt that Christians in the US or in any other country in the world will appreciate Peter claiming that Christian priests serving in the Holy Sepulchre are “barbarians”. Seems like peter has never set a foot there.

If anybody doesn’t consider priests who sink on the level of street thugs barbarians then they have a serious problem. Probably you are confusing me with someone else who gives a shit what they appreciate and what not. Anyway I have a feeling that I was in this church many more times than you.

‘Pete’ Oh dear me, yet again you try to twist things to suit your warped agenda.
Either you are a) not reading the posts, or b) only seeing what you want to see, or c) incapable of understanding English.

“Orthodox worshippers complained of a heavy-handed Israeli police presence at the Holy Fire ceremony on Easter Saturday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with many worshippers denied access.”

This is IRONIC…given how western journalists annually stand around during Hajj with their caps in hand to pity the Muslim pilgrims that get trampled to death, while saying nothing about how the Saudi authorities should exercise more control over the human masses.

You want Andrew to go to Saudi Arabia to tell something to western journalists?
Pete,
I know you want attention…desperately…but the adults are now having a conversation, and anyway, it’s way past your bedtime.

But ‘Pete’ if we apply your logic about not commenting about things of which you “..have little to no knowledge or experience of.” Then we will never read anything from you again.
Now wouldn’t that be a pity (sarcasm intended)

Pulitzer prize what has been awarded the the most despicable persons ever connected to journalism like Walter Duranty and Bilal Hassan. Sencar seems the Guardian is exactly in its right place with the prize.

If it was not for Zionists peacekeepers the Palestinians would have killed each other off by now. Are Zionists stupid? Would that not have solved the I/P conflict forever. Or lioke any other Zionist narrative it is just so much air.

You seem to “know” as much about Zionism as Hitler “knew” about Jews. Israel is multi-ethnic. As for one-state solutions, Israel is also one state. If you’re talking about a bigger state, be careful what you wish for – Mahmoud Abbas – mayor of Ramallah in a majority Jewish State, no more jets, no more embassies, no more trips to the UN, no more money.

You’re so clueless. I supported Oslo which led to the 2000 Camp David accords in which Israel offered a state to the Palestinians and they rejected it without a counter-proposal. Of course, you have 10000000 reasons for rejecting a state offer, but you can’t explain them to me. Because I’m the fucking racist and you’re that amazingly gifted peace lover who just happens to want to extinguish the lone Jewish nation from the face of this Earth.

Listen, Sencar, I get it that you’re a flippant moron, but if you head on over to the video Adam posted at the top of the current list of articles you’ll see hundreds of grown Arab adults yelling and screaming and spitting on and intimidating tiny Jewish children. Now, go fuck yourself with a chainsaw.